How to Shop for Carry-on Luggage

Shopping for luggage is a daunting task. The variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and materials makes it difficult to decide exactly which one you need.

Hello. My name is Garrett Rohde. I am a pilot and ex-airline flight crew member. Airline pilots and flight attendants have become the industry opinion leaders for luggage, more so since the introduction of the wheeled upright carry-on bag in 1989. I have since left professional aviation, and now maintain it as a hobby, and have become much more deeply involved in the luggage industry.

In this article, I will guide you through the process I go through when I decide on a new piece of luggage. I will tell you the things that I look at to determine if the bag is up to my standards. Read on, fair traveler, for this information will save you time, headache, and (possibly) money by helping you find and buy the right, quality piece or set of luggage the FIRST time.

I believe the first step is decide on the bags 'mission'. For instance, as an airline pilot I needed a 22"-24" upright. This provided enough space for me to pack for our longest trips, 4 days, with space enough to pack for 5 if I needed to. I had an add-a-bag strap which I used to lug around my 50lbs flight case. This simple setup was everything I needed.

However, it may or may not be what you need. This setup works great for crew members - pilots and flight attendants alike - but may not work for you. At some airports, when boarding the smaller aircraft or if a jet-way is inoperable, they will require you to walk down a couple flights of stairs to get to the airplane.

A rolling backpack or rolling duffel works great in this scenario, because even fully loaded with a week or more worth of stuff, you can hoist them up on your back or your shoulder, and trundle down the stairs as easy as pie. These, however, usually are not compatible with add-a-bag hooks & straps (hence why they, unfortunately, didn't work for me).

A lot of this choice has to do with two things - what you're transporting, and personal preference of how you'd like to do it. For someone just taking a carry-on bag with no other bags, it comes down just to personal preference of whether you'd like a suiter-upright or a rolling duffel or backpack.

If you're transporting sports equipment, such as pool cues, snowboards, or golf clubs, you'll need a much more specialized transport case.

Before searching through catalogs, at least have a vague idea of what you're looking for and/or what purpose it should serve.

Once you've determined that, then start looking at bags and consider the different aspects of it that I've written about before. All of these may not apply to the bag you're looking at (for instance, it'll challenge you to find a wheeled, semi-soft pool cue case), but these criteria do apply to most luggage.

The factors that go into this decision are a matter of preference and a small number of qualifiers.

To answer this question, you should decide this will be a carry-on suitcase, or luggage that you will check.

Rules vary by airline as to the exact size of luggage they allow to be carried on board an airplane, but the rule-of-thumb is that it should be not much bigger than 45 linear inches.

To determine how many linear inches the suitcase is, add its length, breadth, and depth together.

Usually, wheeled luggage between 20"-23" fits in the "carry on" category.

What size range you pick will depend on your preference to carry on or check as well as the length of your trip. I use the following as a guide when I shop for a new luggage piece.

Trip Length Bag Size Recommendation
1 - 4 days 20" - 23" Wheeled carry-on
4 - 7 days 24" - 26" Wheeled upright
7 - 14 days 27" - 30" Wheeled upright
14 - 21 days 30" - 35" Wheeled upright

These recommendations offer some good guidance, though your mileage may differ.

Luggage is divided into three categories with respect to shell material: hard shell, soft shell, and semi-soft shell. All three offer their own set of advantages and disadvantages.

Hard shelled luggage is the heaviest of the three. Often these are molded fiberglass or plastics. They are tough, stain resistant, and offer superior protection for fragile items, though they can dent or even crack with a hard enough blow.

Soft shelled luggage, such as rolling duffel bags and the like, are the lightest weight option, and may even be folded and packed within another bag (a feature handy if you're planning on bringing back souvenirs). They are easier than their counterparts to fit into airplane overhead bins, and are only as large as the items you pack in them. They offer minimal protection, if any, for fragile items in your luggage.

Semi-soft luggage has become the most popular in recent years. Semi-soft luggage is generally constructed of ballistic nylons around a metal frame, and offers a compromise of weight between hard and soft shelled luggage. They offer good durability and moderate protection of fragile items. Additionally, they are often expandable via an extra zipper on the outside of the suitcase, which allows a little extra packing space if needed.

The semi-soft carry on has become my personal design of choice, as it offers a balance between the advantages of both, while minimizing their disadvantages.

The answer to this question is "to wheel". I have had the pleasure of having to walk through over 100 different terminals across North America and in none of them would I want to have to carry my bag by hand the whole way through.

Definitely get a bag with wheels, if possible. Even backpacks, duffel bags, and equipment cases come with wheels now, so there really is no reason not to get a bag that has wheels.

The only question lies in how to look at wheels. What kind of wheels should the bag have? How should it be constructed so you can be confident that they will stand up to the rigors of travel and not leave with with a mono-wheeled suitcase in the middle of your trip?

The following is a list of attributes that I look for:

1 - Look for large-diameter wheels that look like roller-blade wheels. These are durable, tough, last a long time, and can be replaced with wheels for roller skates from you local sports supply store.

2 - Look for wheels that are inset into the suitcase. On some luggage, the wheels stick out like sore thumbs on the side of the suitcase. This causes them to be exposed to damage. Also, it is easy to get these types of bags hung on chair legs, counters, corners, airplane seats when you're rolling down the aircraft aisle, etc. Look for wheels that are inset. These are protected from harm and are much less likely to get hung on anything.

3 - Smooth gliding. It helps if you can handle the suitcase prior to purchase - if you can't, then familiarity with a brand helps with this. Make sure that the suitcase glides nicely on its wheels. How the wheels are mated to their axles can make a big difference for how easy it is to roll the suitcase along when it is loaded, especially on carpet.

Some luggage pieces come with detachable hooks or straps that allow you to hang another bag from your wheeled suitcase. This is exceptionally useful, as it frees up one of your hands to handle your boarding pass or carrying your coffee through the airport.

The straps/hooks are normally detachable, so they may be put inside your bag when not in use, and attached when you need them.

I recommend only purchasing a bag with this feature.

There are only a couple things you should look for here. The first is handle length, and the second is construction.

The length of the handle should allow you to tow the suitcase along (a) with the suitcase at a normal angle to the ground and (b) while you walk normally (i.e. not hunched over).

The handle should be of sturdy construction. Most handles are telescopic, and most of them are pretty sturdy, but this is something you should look at and take into consideration.

Most people don't even consider the zipper in their calculations when decided whether or not to purchase a certain bag. The truth is there are a variety of different types, they all have different strengths and weaknesses, and what zipper you decide on can either make or ruin your day.

Plastic and metal zippers have been the industry norm since before wheeled luggage first came to be in 1989.

Plastic zippers are light weight, but they are consequently weak and may break under strain.

Metal zippers are of heavier construction and much sturdier and durable than plastic zippers, however these too will eventually wear and break. The problem is you usually can't see the onset of wear in a zipper until it fails, usually when you're inside an airport terminal at security trying to put your things back in your bag after having been randomly picked for a more thorough search of your luggage.

The solution to the above dilemma appeared in the form of a self-repairing zipper. Made from composites, these zippers can self-heal by gently moving the slide over the separated portion of the zipper. Though I have no personal experience with self-healing zippers as of yet, many people that I work with no and worked with at Continental swear by self-repairing zippers. Their track record has been nearly flawless, and they have proven themselves to be much more reliable and long lasting than their plastic or metal counterparts.

This is not a show-stopper in my mind, if your perfect bag doesn't have a self-healing zipper, but it is a definite bonus that you want to keep in mind.

Most luggage comes with a pair of locks. These have become nearly useless for airline travel, unless you're using so-called "TSA Locks".

"TSA Locks" are locks that all fit to a master-key that is possessed by the TSA. On most of them, there is a colored flag which indicates if your luggage was opened by the TSA's key.

This is a good compromise as it allows the TSA to inspect airline luggage while still maintaining customer security.

TSA Locks can be purchased online from various vendors and are easily found in Google and other search engines.

This is an important decision. Some brands and luggage lines are very short lived, while others have been around for years. Luggage lines that are around for a long time are easier to find parts and support for, which the short lived lines after a few years are barely remembered, and maybe not even covered, by the company that made them.

For instance, a 23" wheeled upright that I had for a long time bore the Eddie Bauer brand name, but was actually made by a separate company. The line lasted a few years, and then was replaced by another. I was searching at one point for a repair kit, which was necessary to remove the wheels to replace them, but I couldn't find it. When I called Eddie Bauer, and then the company that manufactured the bag, neither of them had any information on that line other than its name. The bag was an excellent piece of luggage and lasted a very long time, but the support that I didn't find for it was disappointing and, ultimately, caused me to go with another company.

The three "500lb gorillas" in my experience are, in order, TravelPro, International Traveler, and SkyWay, with TravelPro being my personal favorite of the three, having exceeded my own expectations on a number of occasions in all areas of product quality that I look for in luggage.
International Traveler produces primarily hard-shelled luggage, so I have little personal experience with them, but they have a reputation for supreme quality in their products.
SkyWay has a good reputation in the industry. They make good quality semi-soft wheeled carry-on uprights with inset wheels. They're luggage pieces have a reputation for excellent durability.

Though I've had people I used to work with tell me that this is a non-consideration, I have seen that quite a bit of emphasis is put on how the luggage looks along with, and maybe over, it's functionality.

Thus, I decided to include this section.

A lot of luggage is black, but you can find luggage in nearly every color, design, pattern, and hue known to man - everything from Hawaiian to tie-dye to camouflage.

In my opinion, hard-shelled luggage takes the prize for "Groove Factor". They are somewhat unusual, as you don't seen nearly as many hard-shells around an airport as you used to, they are shiny, they look very space-age, and their patterns and colors show much more brightly than do the colors of their soft and semi-soft shell counterparts.

I recently came across a luggage set from International Traveler with very high *GrOoVe FaCtOr* called the Shiny Zebra Print 3 Piece Set. Yes, it's zebra print. 0_0

Your own particular taste in *groove factor* is purely up to you, as is the balance you apply between it and the other factors you should be looking for. Just make sure you're aware of the trade-off you may make between quality and *groove factor*. Personally, I always shop quality, functionality, *groove factor*, in that order.

Luggage sets allow you to keep your bags coordinated, which does a lot for your *groove factor*, and can also get you a lower price-per-bag.